Stop Junk Mail and Save Your Budget

Direct mail marketing has more purchasing influence than any other marketing channel today. A 2009 ExactTarget study found that three out of four Americans make purchases based on direct mail solicitations. Nearly 60 percent are influenced by email marketing.

Do you want to control your spending and save some of that hard-earned cash? Stop junk mail and pare down your inbox.

Billions of junk mail items are stuffed into United States mailboxes every day. This unwanted, unsolicited mail is annoying, wasteful, and harmful to the environment and the pocketbook. To keep your sanity, save natural resources, and hold on to your money, trim the junk mail.

To stop junk mail, you must stop the paper trail to your mailbox. Block unsolicited mail and opt-out of unwanted mail. Here are three FREE services that can help:

1. DMAChoice. DMAChoice is an online tool from Direct Marketing Association. It divides junk mail into four categories: catalogs, magazines, credit offers, and other mail offers. Block mail from one or more categories, or select individual marketers within a category.

DMAChoice allows caregivers to control direct mail marketing to those in their care. It also allows family members to remove a deceased loved one's name from commercial marketing lists. An email preference service controls the number of commercial emails to your inbox.

2. Opt Out Prescreen. Opt Out Prescreen lets you opt-out of credit card and insurance offers. The online service is run by the major credit bureaus: Equifax, Experion, Innovis, and TransUnion.

Under the Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA), consumer credit reporting companies may include your name on lists used by insurance companies and creditors to make firm offers of insurance or credit. The FCRA allows you to opt-out, which prevents credit bureaus from providing your credit file for these offers. To opt-out by phone, call 1-888-567-8688.

3. Catalog Choice. Catalog Choice, a nonprofit organization, helps you reduce unwanted mail, save the environment, and protect your privacy. It stops catalogs, coupons, phone books, and other junk mail from flooding your mailbox each day.

Catalogs, sales circulars, charity envelopes, and other unsolicited mail usually have a phone number printed on them. Call these marketers directly. It takes just a few minutes of your time, and a representative can take you off the mailing list for good.

Call the 800-number on the back of your debit and credit cards, too. Ask the bank to remove your name from their mail marketing list and those of their partners. This will also help you trim the junk mail.

Keep your inbox invitation-only, and use email filters to trim the junk mail. Junk e-mail, known as unsolicited bulk email (UBE) and email spam, gives hackers access to your private data, including financial information. A hacker attack could drain your bank account.

The ExactTarget study revealed that 58 percent of Americans make purchases based on email marketing. Junk email may convince you to buy something you don't want or need, and that can break your budget. Save money by controlling your inbox.

Opt-out of commercial email lists. Unsubscribe from email you didn't sign up for, or no longer read. Here are two helpful tools that won't cost you a cent:

1. Email Preference Service. The Email Preference Service (eMPS) is a free consumer service from DMAChoice. It allows you to remove your email address from national lists that use the eMPS service. While it can't stop all commerical emails, it helps trim the junk mail from your inbox.

2. Unsubscribe. Unsubscribe lets you manage your email and social media applications, so you can stop unwanted email and control access to your online identity. The free tool has applications for GMail, Hotmail, Yahoo! Mail, and the major social networks. Email extensions and plug-ins are available for Apple Mail, BlackBerry, Microsoft Outlook, Outlook Express, Thunderbird, and Windows Mail. You can also send unwanted mailing list emails to Unsubscribe for automatic processing.

• Barlow, Tom. (2011, March 4). "More Junk Mail Coming Soon: How to Stop it." DailyFinance (AOL Money and Finance). Retrieved January 28, 2012.
• DailyWorth writers. (2012, January 18). "Skinny Mailbox, Fat Wallet." DailyWorth. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
• Federal Trade Commission. (2011, March). "Unsolicited Mail, Telemarketing, and Email: Where to Go to 'Just Say No'." Federal Trade Commission: Consumer Alert. Retrieved January 28, 2012.
• Zelman, Joanna. (2011, March 11). "How to Stop Junk Mail." The Huffington Post. Retrieved January 28, 2012.

Copyright © 2012. Annette R. Smith. All rights reserved.

Published January 28, 2012. Updated February 9, 2012.